John Schlesinger -- Oscar-winning director

**FILE** Filmmaker John , shown in New York in this Oct. 1990 file photo, was taken off life support Thursday, July 24, 2003, at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, Calif., his spokeswoman said. , 77, the Oscar-winning director of ``Midnight Cowboy,'' suffered a debilitating stroke in December 2000. Spokeswoman Ronni Chasen said his condition has deteriorated significantly in recent weeks. (AP Photo/Wyatt Counts) less

**FILE** Filmmaker John , shown in New York in this Oct. 1990 file photo, was taken off life support Thursday, July 24, 2003, at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, Calif., his spokeswoman said. , ... more

Photo: WYATT COUNTS

Photo: WYATT COUNTS

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**FILE** Filmmaker John , shown in New York in this Oct. 1990 file photo, was taken off life support Thursday, July 24, 2003, at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, Calif., his spokeswoman said. , 77, the Oscar-winning director of ``Midnight Cowboy,'' suffered a debilitating stroke in December 2000. Spokeswoman Ronni Chasen said his condition has deteriorated significantly in recent weeks. (AP Photo/Wyatt Counts) less

**FILE** Filmmaker John , shown in New York in this Oct. 1990 file photo, was taken off life support Thursday, July 24, 2003, at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, Calif., his spokeswoman said. , ... more

Photo: WYATT COUNTS

John Schlesinger -- Oscar-winning director

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John Schlesinger, a British director whose gift for capturing the nuances of human relationships raised him to the summit of his profession, died Friday in Palm Springs. He was 77 and had been in failing health since suffering a stroke in December 2000.

Born in London, Mr. Schlesinger discovered an interest in the performing arts while in military service, where he performed a magic act for his fellow soldiers in World War II. After the defeat of the Axis powers, Mr. Schlesinger continued his education at Oxford, where he studied theater and took part in campus theatricals. Upon graduation, he embarked on the career that would later prove an ideal preparation for his future calling as a director: He became an actor.

A character type -- short and stocky -- Mr. Schlesinger acted in eight feature films, appeared on several British television programs and performed continually on the stage, not only in his native England but also in New Zealand and Australia. In honing his craft as an actor, he also learned how to talk to actors and elicit emotional responses, a skill that would prove indispensable when he switched to directing.

Interested in photography from childhood, Mr. Schlesinger began making short documentaries for the BBC in the late 1950s. But it wasn't until 1961 that his first important breakthrough came, when he was assigned to make a documentary about daily life in London's Waterloo Station.

The assignment proved an ideal marriage of a director and a subject. Though the camera hangs back dispassionately, Mr. Schlesinger's sympathetic apprehension of the pains and joys of daily life was unmistakable. This 45- minute film, a hit on the film festival circuit, gave Mr. Schlesinger his first taste of international prominence and started his feature film career.

His first feature, "A Kind of Loving" (1962), was a gritty romance about the travails of a young man and woman who leap headlong into marriage after the woman becomes pregnant. More frank and explicit than American films of the time, the movie was a hit. Mr. Schlesinger continued in the same middle-class vein with "Billy Liar" (1963), starring Tom Courtenay as a discontented working man seeking escape in fantasy.

It was with the lead actress in "Billy Liar," Julie Christie, that Mr. Schlesinger would take his second great step into eminence. In 1965, he discarded the kitchen-sink trappings of his previous work to explore the swinging London youth culture in "Darling," the story of a model who makes it her mission to achieve wealth and position. Christie won that year's Academy Award, and suddenly Mr. Schlesinger, at 40, found himself a director in demand.

Mr. Schlesinger used his newfound status to make the epic-length Thomas Hardy adaptation "Far From the Madding Crowd" (1967), again with Christie, but though the film later won praise, it initially was met with critical indifference and was a box office failure. In 1996, Mr. Schlesinger recalled going to the premiere and being met by "a phalanx of suits from the publicity department. They said, 'Welcome to L.A. You must be very tired. We've canceled the party.' "

Mr. Schlesinger decided to stay in Los Angeles, even though he had no fondness for the city and would escape to San Francisco every weekend. He began to work on "Midnight Cowboy" (1969), which would more than restore his prestige. An outsider in America, he understood the main character (played by Jon Voight) of an outsider bringing his dreams to the streets of New York. Mr. Schlesinger had arrived in America at a propitious time -- one year before the movie industry's old production code collapsed, enabling him to enjoy the artistic freedom in the United States that he had enjoyed in England. "Midnight Cowboy" was initially released with an "X" rating. It went on to win the Academy Awards for best picture and best director.

After the success of "Midnight Cowboy," Mr. Schlesinger was at the height of his career and at the pinnacle of his powers. Continuing to push the boundaries, he followed his Oscar-winning success with "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (1971), with Peter Finch as a gay man in a straight relationship, wrestling with his attraction for a younger man. A poetic film, it was also something of a social milestone for its time, and it earned Mr. Schlesinger another Oscar nomination. He concluded his great period -- the 10 years starting with "Darling" -- with "The Day of the Locust" (1975), an adaptation of the Nathanael West novel about fringe players in 1930s Hollywood.

Over the years, Mr. Schlesinger demonstrated a propensity for the Hollywood thriller, and "Marathon Man" (1976), his first, was perhaps his best loved. Starring Laurence Olivier as a sadistic Nazi dentist and Dustin Hoffman as a runner who accidentally gets mixed up in a diamond heist, the movie contributed a popular catchphrase: "Is it safe?"

Though his later films lacked the urgency and social importance of his earlier work, Mr. Schlesinger remained, to the end, the kind of director who, if given a better than decent script, could always be relied upon to deliver the goods. "The Believers" (1987) was a graphic but effective horror film. More to form, "Madame Sousatzka" (1988) gave Shirley MacLaine one of her finest later showcases, as an exacting music teacher. "Pacific Heights" (1990),

about the difficulty of evicting an evil tenant, was entertaining nonsense.

Mr. Schlesinger continued to work. "They are not going to relegate me to the shelf," he said at 70. "I'm old enough to retire. But I still want to work and am still capable of working and have still got the energy. Nothing is going to stop me." His last film, the gay-themed "The Next Best Thing" (2000), which starred Madonna, can be seen as the classic example of a great director going out on a banana peel.

The pity is, he never got to direct the film he very much wanted to make, the adaptation of Larry Kramer's AIDS play, "The Normal Heart." Planned to enter production in the summer of 1996, the movie would have been a fitting cap to the career of this openly gay director, who loved to test the limits. But the deal collapsed, and the film was never made.

Mr. Schlesinger lived in Palm Springs with his companion of 30 years, photographer Michael Childers.